Tennessee to look at primary voters' records

Primary ballots come under scrutiny

Aug. 29, 2012

Written by

Michael Cass

The Tennessean

Mark Goins / File

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State election officials plan to look at the histories of voters who participated in the Republican primary in Davidson County this month to help determine if voters were routinely given the GOP ballot by default.

Tennessee Citizen Action said Hall and others were victims of Davidson County’s new electronic poll books defaulting to the Republican primary if voters didn’t express a preference for one primary or the other on Aug. 2.

While Goins said “default” is actually the wrong term, he acknowledged that the Republican primary was listed first in the poll books, which state law required because the GOP is currently in power in the General Assembly. He said the Republican primary also was highlighted, and poll officials either failed to ask voters if they wanted to vote in a primary or, if they did ask, they failed to highlight the Democratic primary once voters expressed that preference.

As a result, those voters received a Republican ballot.

“It doesn’t sound like there was proper training on that issue,” Goins said, though Davidson County Election Administrator Albert Tieche assured him the poll officials had been trained.

Goins said his office, after consulting with the state attorney general, has asked the Davidson County Election Commission for records from the state primary and county general election. The election commission must turn over the records within 45 days of the election, he said.

Once the state gets the records, officials will look at the list of Republican voters from the 60 precincts that used electronic poll books, which Davidson County is gradually implementing across its 160 precincts. Goins said the state will check each voter’s history of voting in previous primaries “and see if anything jumps out.”

If it seems unlikely that a voter meant to cast a Republican ballot, the state will ask if the voter is willing to sign a form saying he or she wants his or her voter history changed. The state could do that by marking the Aug. 2 Republican votes on those histories with an “E” for “error.” Goins said Hall, who will be up for re-election as a Democrat in 2014 and might run for mayor the following year, has already said he’d be willing to sign such a form.

He said voters who believe they were given the wrong ballot can call the Tennessee Division of Elections at 615-741-7956.

Mary Mancini, Tennessee Citizen Action’s executive director, said the "default to Republican ballot" issue could have “staggering” implications if it was widespread, given that some primaries were decided by relatively small margins. For example, Harold Love defeated state Rep. Mary Pruitt by just 41 votes in the House District 58 Democratic race.

Goins said his office was looking into the situation before Mancini’s nonprofit, nonpartisan consumer rights group held a news conference Monday morning.

Goins also said Tieche did not tell him about Hall’s voting problem. Hall wrote a letter to Tieche dated Aug. 9, but Goins said he first heard about the issue from an anonymous tipster on Aug. 16, prompting him to call the sheriff and confirm the story.